I want to be number 1 in google
I once received an enquiry from a well-meaning businessman. He was putting together a website to sell his goods on-line. He told me his competitor (a friend of his) is in the same industry and has a website that ranks in the first page of google, selling the very same goods he wants to sell, and turns over £2 million a year.
Naturally, this businessman is eager to get moving and take a slice of that business!
Here is what he said to me:
“I want to be number 1 in google”
Followed by…
“I have no money”
Spot the problem.
Ok, let’s deal with each statement in turn.
“I want to be number 1 in google”
Nobody can guarantee you a ranking position on any search engine. Google’s terms and conditions state that they cannot guarantee what position your website will be – or even if google will index your website at all!
If google can’t guarantee the ranking on their own search engine, then neither can I. Nor can anybody else, for that matter.
If you understand how search engines work, then you can see why a ranking cannot be guaranteed. If you don’t, then you can apply a little common sense and work it out. Can anybody guarantee a football team’s position in the league table? No, of course they can’t. Why? Because results CHANGE after every match.
Well, in the same way, your competition is not sitting around doing nothing. They’re optimising and promoting their websites actively, so results are going to be CHANGING always!
Now, the second statement: “I have no money”
This statement requires no SEO knowledge at all to analyse. Let’s take a closer look using only facts and common sense:
I want to be number 1 in google, for a search term that is going to net me around £2 million per year or more.
I want to spend very little money on this venture.
In other words, I want to earn £2 million a year, and all I want to spend on this is £100.
That’s what I call a return on investment! Even property isn’t that profitable!
Well, of course, if that was the case, I’d be building my own website and working hard on marketing it across the net, so that I too would make that profit!
The answer is of course: you need to do BETTER & MORE SEO than your competition in order to rank better than them. SEO has costs associated with it – you’re paying for expertise & for time and effort. Certain sites in certain industries spend thousands of pounds per month on SEO – but they make that back and more by being found on the search engine results (and that is the whole point of SEO).
The old saying: “you have to spend money to make money” rings true here. SEO costs will depend on your industry. If you’re in a profitable industry, then you’re going to have a lot of competition, and to out-rank them, you’re going to have to work harder at your SEO than they are. This is the bottom line. Of course, the profits you make by virtue of your position will offset the cost of your SEO, so in essence, SEO is a necessary cost – it’s part of your budget for your business plan. Internet Marketing is not a separate cost.
My SEO services can be sliced and spread across various packages and time scales to suit smaller budgets. Link building packages are available in various quantities, so that you can do some SEO and monitor your results, then plan accordingly.
For more information, view my SEO Services
Jose Gonzalez, SEO, SEM, IM & Conversion Specialist
Hire me as your personal SEO: call 0844 247 4270 (local rate) or click here
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